Insets: Charles Johnson, Pamela Johnson and Shannon Robinson (Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home in Bourg, La., where Charles Johnson got Shannon Robinson to shoot his wife Pamela Johnson dead in 2015 (Google Maps).
A 70-year-old Louisiana man has been charged in a “killing for hire” case in which he allegedly got a hit man to shoot his wife dead because they were getting a divorce and he didn’t want to give up his “community property,” according to local officials.
Charles Johnson, of Houma, and his alleged assassin, Shannon Robinson, 43, were both arrested this week for the 2015 murder of 56-year-old Pamela Johnson, according to local officials. The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney Joseph Waitz announced the charges at a press conference Wednesday that was broadcast by local NBC affiliate WDSU.
“It was a divorce going bad, and he felt like he had to do away with her to protect his property,” Waitz told reporters. “That’s what we suspect.”
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
It was a Tuesday morning when cops found out about Pamela Johnson’s murder through two of her grandchildren, who were found near an abandoned vehicle registered in her name, according to Waitz and Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet. The youths approached an adult female on Wade Street in Houma at around 8:30 a.m. and told her that Pamela Johnson had been shot.
The couple, at the time, had been living at a residence in Bourg and were told by the children that Pamela Johnson was shot there. Her body was found with a single gunshot wound to the head, according to officials. In 2022, authorities took Robinson and another man — George Earl Robinson Jr., 33, of Houma — into custody and charged them both with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping for allegedly taking the grandchildren from the home. A grand jury, however, refused to take up the charges.
“New evidence came to light and that’s what led us here today,” Soignet said Wednesday. “We can suspect but we have to be able to prove, and over a period of time, we were able to get to this point to where now we can prove and feel 100% confident the family is going to get the justice they deserve.”
Waitz declined to share specific details about what brought the focus back to Robinson and Charles Johnson to avoid hindering the case, but he did say the motive was clear.
“This is a very terrible case…that involved a domestic situation over community property,” Waitz told reporters. “And to kill someone over this is very sad, very tragic.”
According to Soignet, it was likely fear of losing “homes” and “maybe retirement” that allegedly spurred Charles Johnson to hire Robinson. George Robinson Jr. has not been charged again, but police and prosecutors aren’t ruling anything out.
“We’re still investigating,” Soignet said, after being asked about Robinson Jr. “We’re going to look at everything.”
